Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/270

* ROMANESQUE ABT. 246 ROMANESQUE ART. Vezelay or of Peterborough, Ely, and Durham. Only in a few provinces where early Chris- tian and classic traditions were strong, as in Konie and Tuscany, did the old columnar basilica maintain its sway. .Esthetically the Koinanesque style impresses by its seriousness of purpose, its massiveness, and its originality. The substitution of vaulting in place of the com- bustible wooden roof introduced an entirely new structural problem, and the Romanesque attempts at its solution were endlessly varied: domes, round and pointed tunnel vaults, unribbed and ribbed groin-vaults of every conceivable form were used. The architects were seeking for a perfect equilibrium of parts. This was not dis- covered until the C4othic ribbed vault and Hying buttress were evolved in the latter part of the twelfth century. Italy. In Italy especially, the diversity of styles during the Romanesque period is extreme. Venice, for example, is predominantly Byzantine, not only in Saint ilark's with its domes and mosaics, and in the churches of Torcello (Cathe- dral and Santa Fosca) and ilurano, but in its private palaces with their stilted arcades, marble facades, and sculptured ornament. Then again, the cosmopolitan culture of the Xorman kings of Sicily produced a gorgeous architecture made up of Latin, Greek, and Arabic elements, as in the cathedrals of Cefalu and Monreale, and the Cap- pella Palatina at Palermo. In Calabria there ap- pears a pure Byzantine st.yle, with tiny domical churches, like those of Greece; in Campania, especially at Ravello and Salerno, Moorish -and Byzantine intluences sometimes predominate, though we often find a strong Lombard element. .Working northward, Ave now find two main divi- .sions, based on different principles: the classic and the Lombard. The classic school is repre- sented by the Roman provinces and Tuscany, which produced works of great beauty of form and color, but covered with the wooden roof. This school is best represented by the mediaeval basilicas of Rome itself, and by the cathedrals of Terracina and Civita Castellana. Its simple but majestic columnar interiors with rich mosaic ornament, its STOimetrical brick campanili and exquisite architraved porches recall the best early Christian art. Less classic, but even more monu- mental and gayer in their exteriors, were the Tuscan churches. Here Pisa — Venice's great ri- val at this time — takes the lead with its cathe- dral, baptistery, leaning tower, and a host of other buildings, followed by Lucca, with San Frediano. San Giovanni, and San ilichele as well as Pistoia. Prato. and other smaller towns. The same use of columns and roof as in Rome is com- bined with an alternation of black and white marbles borrowed from the East and with interior and exterior open arcades and galleries borrowed from Lombardy, as was also the use of relief sculpture on the facades. The Tuscan churches, like the Roman and the Lombard, had a single detached bell-tower or campanile, usually to the right of the church. In this Italy differed both from the Orient and from Xorthern Europe, where the bell-tower or a pair of them was ordinarily an integral part of the church. The Lombard style, the second of the two great schools named above, made fre- quent use of the groined vault, and secured a sombre impressiveness by the heavy proportions and details that went with vaulting. Externally the same impression results from the use of plain walls of brick or stone unrelieved by mar- ble. Sant' Ambrogio at Milan and San ilichele at Pavia were the earliest examples and furnished the type; the cathedrals and baptisteries of Parma, Cremona, Piacenza, Ferrara, and ilodena are all superb structures, unsurpassed by build- ings of any age in Italj'. In this province the baptisteries are especially numerous and impor- tant (e.g. Parma and Cremona). Here also were built the earliest town-halls of the free com- munes. Hardly less monumental, but with less consistent use of vaulting, are the South Lom- bard churches of Apulia, where the dfecoration is richer and more artistic than in Lombardy itself, as at Bitonto. Altaraura, and Troja. The portals and wlieel windows ai'e the richest and most symmetrical in Italy. Apulia is also rich in churches showing French, Norman, and Byzan- tine influences. Baptisteries and towers were very few in this province, so that the churches usually stand alone. Fr.xce. It was in France that the Roman- esque style, forsaking earh- Christian and clas- sic traditions, and unaffected by contemporary Oriental art, first developed as an independent style merging into the Gothic. With greater homogeneity than in Italy, it nevertheless dis- plays well-marked local variations or schools, e.g. those of Provence. Auvergne, and POrigord in the south, of Burgundy in tlie centre, and of the Royal Domain and Xormandy in the north. It was in these schools that the successful struggle to create a vaulted style as a substitute for a wooden-roofed style was carried on, leading ulti- mately to the Gothic-ribbed vault and buttress. The Byzantine domical solution with a single nave was adopted in Aquitaine, especially in Perigord, where Saint Front at Perigueux, with its five domes over a Greek cross, is comparable to Saint Mark's at Venice and the Cathedral of Cahors shows how a single long nave may be covered with a row of domes. This style, at first very plain, became enriched with typical Roman- esque detail and ornament through the twelfth century, and is then represented by such master- pieces as the cathedrals of AngoulOme and Fon- tevrault. The other most fruitful early school was that of Auvergne. in which occur the ear- liest examples of the long choir with side aisles, ambulatory and radiating chapels, later elabo- rated in the Gothic style. Its masterpiece is the largest reniaining Romanesque church in France — Saint Servin at Toulouse, with its impos- ing central tower, tunnel-vaulted nave, symmetri- cal composition, and rich details. Tunnel-vault- ing and classic traditions are conspicuous in the southernmost or Provencal school. Saint Tro- phlme at Aries and Saint Gilles are celebrated for their richly sculptured portals. Ordinarily the churches were of moderate size, often with but a single nave, as at Avignon, Cavaillon, and Montmajour. .Still commoner, however, was the three-aisled type with the side aisle so disposed as to receive the thrust of the central tunnel vault. Tile difficulty of providing a clearstory, with this arrangement, led to varied expedients to avoid the resulting dark interiors, and stimulated ingenuity in vault-building, by which ultimately clearstory windows were introduced. This school is inferior to that of Auvergne especially in the absence of the triforium to break up the wall surfaces.